Analog
by Workparty
Summary: Life was complicated for Danny, but Vlad's desire for a son was about to make it a whole lot worse. After all, how can you figure out your life when "you" aren't even the only one living it? Published for October 2017, it's a 5-part anthology that will have you seeing double!
1. Chapter 1: analog

**analog  
** _adj_. in which the value of an object is represented by a continuously variable quantity.  
 _n._ something that is analogous or similar to something else; similar in appearance.

* * *

It was like the rumble of thunder.

When he was younger he used to love storms. The rain, the howl of the wind, the flash of lightning and the crash of thunder; his early fascination with the power of nature was probably what lead him to his love of astronomy. It also set him apart from his sister, Jazz, who had been rendered inconsolable by a particularly violent storm early in life and continued to hate them well into her childhood. Danny, in his youngest days, never understood why she would be afraid of something so awesome.

He could understand that kind of fear now. The rumbling was far too close for his comfort, and it sounded worse than he had ever heard before.

...It didn't even sound that much like thunder.

The din was pierced by a scream of pain that sounded far too much like his own, and his eyes shot open as purple ectoplasm shot inches in front of his face. He had somehow fallen asleep upright like he was on the Shuttle or something. Fallen asleep, or... Was he in a lab?

Was he strapped into some stupid metal tube in a lab?

Danny groaned in exasperation. "Oh man, what has that fruitloop done now...?"

The question had been directed at the ceiling, and he had hardly expected it to answer, but answer it did. A very familiar syrupy voice chimed happily, "Containment units overheating, dearest heart! Releasing pods, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon! Failure in coolant couplings 6, 12, and 20, sweetums."

He had just finished wondering what his mom was doing in what was _presumably_ Wisconsin when the hermetic hiss of a breaking seal sounded, and the glass in front of him swung open. The next thing he knew, the straps released, and he was dumped in an undignified heap in front of the pod.

"Danny!" The voice came from across the lab. The ghostly teen shook himself off and flew up to meet his 'cousin' Danielle. She threw herself at him in a hug before backing away, eyes full of hope, to ask, "Did you beat Vlad? Can we get out of here now?"

Danny just looked back at her in confusion. "Uh, what? Was I fighting Vlad?"

"Should I just call him Plasmius? They're the same person."

"I know they're the same person, Dani, it's just that I don't remember how I got here."

"Oh jeez, did he hit you in the head? You've been fighting him for like ten minutes cuz!" She motioned around the room, which was indeed Vlad's lab; or at least, what was left of it. Warning lights were flashing in every corner and most of the equipment was smoking or sparking, if not upended and on fire.

"Are you sure? I just woke up in some kind of tube thing..."

A look of panic crossed her expression, but any further conversation was interrupted when the ceiling collapsed, followed shortly by Vlad in ghost-form and... Danny Phantom.

He looked exactly like Danny, right down to the black and white jumpsuit. It was eerie to say the least, watching... Himself, or at least a very convincing copy, pummeling Vlad into the rubble until ectoplasm splattered out of the man's broken nose.

The clone didn't stop his assault until after an unconscious Plasmius reverted back to a very disheveled Vlad. Still breathing heavily, the copy stood up, bracing his hands on his knees on the ascent, before wiping the back of a filth-covered glove across his forehead in a vain attempt to remove the sweat and ghostly blood covering it.

"Danny?" Dani asked again, far more cautiously this time. The clone below them turned around, the victorious smile draining from his face as soon as he saw the original Danny was with her.

"Watch out Dani, it's one of Vlad's clones!" the clone shouted, charging up another ectoblast and taking to the air. Danny dodged it with a yelp, before firing back one of his own.

"Dani, it's the evil clone trying to trick you! Don't believe it!" Danny had turned to face Danielle, to make sure she heard his urgent warning. She was only looking back and forth between the two ghostly twins, looking increasingly like cornered prey. "Danielle? Come on, don't worry, you're saf— Oof!"

The next thing he knew, Danny was on the floor, the clone slowly descending from above him, a fist wreathed in spectral flames held aloft. "Nice try, but I'm the one who actually fought Vlad while you were in your cloning vat."

" _Containment_ _unit_ ," he replied, rising to his feet and raising a fist of his own, _"_ The computer didn't say anything about it being a cloning tank or whatever. I was just in there to hold me back from kicking Vlad's butt myself."

The clone blinked. "You hate Vlad too?"

Danny nodded. "Of course I do. The guy's a crazed-up fruitloop."

The fight visibly left the clone, who lowered his fists and floated over toward Danielle carefully. "Hey, were there any other clones in on the scheme to trick me into coming here, or was it just you?"

She shook her head, before addressing them both. "Nope. Not that I saw anyway. If you both say you hate Vlad, it's probably true."

Clone-Danny seemed to consider that for a moment before turning back to Danny, who lowered his fists. He wouldn't fight his copy if he didn't need to. "OK, so I'll believe that you're on my side here. But you're going to need to realize who the clones are here."

Danny scoffed. "Well obviously I know I'm real, so you two must be the clones. Not that it's a bad thing," he added hastily, attempting to placate the duplicate.

It didn't work. "Oh yeah? Do you even remember how you got here?"

"I—" Well, no, he didn't. He just remembered going to bed after fighting Skulker, then waking up in the pod. "Not really, but—"

" _I_ remember everything," the clone cut in, "I remember getting dragged in here, I remember Vlad taking a huge chunk of skin off my arm to get my DNA, the stupid brain scan, all of it. I remember slipping out of his restraints during his stupid bad-guy speech and then kicking his butt, and I know _I'm_ real!"

Danny was about to give a biting reply of his own when Danielle interjected. "Uh, Danny? Dannys? Where is Vlad anyway?" She pointed to the spot where Vlad had been lying unconscious, and where he was now nowhere to be found.

"Questions compounding questions!" Vlad's smug voice sounded from near the portal, his hand above a conspicuous red button. "Yes, this is all quite a mystery to you, I'm sure. Such a shame you'll never find out the answers. Taa!" With a small wave with his other hand, he pressed the button. Predictably, the computerized voice of their collective mother made one last announcement.

"Initiating self-destruct sequence, my cuddly cheese curd! Laboratory will detonate in 15 seconds."

"That son of a-!" Danielle fired a quick ectoblast at the portal as her 'father' retreated through it; the gateway closed behind him, and the plasma bounced harmlessly off the blast doors. There was a fire in her eyes when she rounded on the other two. "Truce?"

Danny and his clone looked at each other, evaluating carefully, before looking back to Danielle. "Yeah, OK." "Truce."

She nodded, "Alright! Now let's get out of here."

* * *

As it happened, it had not been Vlad's Wisconsin lab; the explosion itself was almost enough to propel the trio half of the way back home. Aside from the ringing in their ears and the receding wail of firetruck sirens, the remaining 5 minutes of flight was spent in uncomfortable silence, until they landed in the front entryway to Fentonworks.

The clone was the first to speak. "The house seems empty, I think we've got some time to figure this out... What are we going to tell my mom and dad?"

Danny bristled at that. "You mean _my_ mom and dad."

Clone-Danny frowned. "We agreed that we all hated Vlad, not that you weren't a clone."

"Look, you said Vlad took a chunk out of you, right? On your arm?" The clone nodded. "Well, then there'd still be a mark there, right?"

The clone rolled his eyes, before removing one of his gloves. "Of course, there's no way it'd heal that fast. Look—" He pulled back his sleeve.

The skin was spotless. Unblemished.

"Wait, what?" A confused look dawned on the clone's face before he frantically ripped off his other glove and pulled back that sleeve in turn. There was no mark to be found. "I don't understand, where's the scar? The cut? It's..."

"It's not there," Danny said as gently as he could.

The clone met Danny's eyes, a growing look of devastation on his face. Danielle laid a comforting hand on his shoulder until he found his voice again. "What... What are we going to do?"

Danny sighed and slumped down onto the bottom step on the staircase. His parents would need to know. The idea was terrifying. It wasn't that he thought his parents would hate him for what he was, although there was some small part of him that worried about that... But they had seen every threat ever made on his half-life. Half of them had been televised, after all. Would they try to stop him from saving people? Danny quite enjoyed his status as the town's protector. It was hard to imagine losing that.

He looked at the two clones eyeing him carefully. There was also their lives to consider, now. Would his parents not just accept him, but them as well? They had nowhere else to go, and Danny couldn't abandon what were basically another two siblings, even if they had been brought into the world in an unusual way.

"We're going to have to tell them the truth. The whole truth."

"What?! Are you crazy? I've been... _You've_ been hiding 'Phantom' from them for half a year!"

Danny stood abruptly, walking over to his clones. "There are some things more important than my secret. _Our_ secret, now. If I want my parents to accept me for who I am... I'd be a hypocrite to not accept you. Both of you," he added, giving Danielle a small smile.

"I... Don't know what to say."

"Just say you'll stand by me for this."

"I think he means he didn't expect you to be so cool about this. It really means a lot to me, cuz," Dani said.

Danny winked down at her. "I know. But I'm looking forward to getting to hang out with two people who will actually laugh at my jokes."

A crack of laughter and a small hug later, the trio broke up just in time for a key to jiggle in the front door's lock. Danny smiled. "Sounds like mom and dad are home now." He transformed back into human form, the other two following his lead. "Ready for the big reveal?"

The other two nodded back at him. The door cracked open.

"Hey Mom and Dad, I have something to—"

Danny swallowed his words. The door swung open, and he was looking at the surprised face of Danny Fenton, flanked on either side by Tucker Foley and Sam Manson.

With wide eyes and a trembling hand, Danny grabbed his own sleeve and pulled it back.

* * *

Author's Note: _Happy October! To celebrate the spookiest of months, a loose anthology centering around Danny and his clones. This story will update every Tuesday this month, culminating in Halloween, by which time I suspect the word "clone" will no longer seem_ real _to me. And fear not, regular readers of mine; Amity Park After Dark has an update coming out tomorrow, the 4th._

 _n.b. The fact that today is also the 60th anniversary of the launch of the first artificial satellite,_ Sputnik _, is really just a pleasing coincidence, given my well-documented interest in the race for space._

 _08/10/2017 - Many thanks to reviewer and actual linguist_ imekitty _for pointing out some ambiguous wording and suggesting a correction._


	2. Chapter 2: alternate

**alternate  
** _v._ a signal or electric current in which the amplitude reverses periodically, such as sawtooth, sinusoidal or square wave current.  
 _adj._ succeeding by turns; one following the other in succession of time or place.

* * *

Danny Fenton hunted ghosts.

It was considered Casper High's worst-kept secret. If you asked him who The Revenant was underneath those goggles and white jumpsuit, chances are you'd get some stupid excuse. I mean, there were a few other students who looked kind of like Danny _and_ this ghost hunter, right? And nobody accused Danny of secretly being on the basketball team or something because secret identities are ridiculous.

Or at least that's what he would tell you, but it was pretty clear the two were connected. Danny Fenton was always showing up late to class, or he'd urgently have to leave in the middle of a period; he probably took as many trips to the "bathroom" in a week as some people took in a year. Danny almost always seemed tired, too. He'd fall asleep in particularly long lectures or in the middle of educational videos when the lights went out. Meanwhile, this Revenant guy had a habit of being around right after Danny had left. He fought ghosts at all hours, day and night, and captured them with what looked _suspiciously_ like Fentonworks gear.

And besides, you can't hide who you are just by throwing on different clothes. It was way too obvious.

* * *

Danny Phantom was a ghost.

As a ghost, he could fly. To be fair, there were a fair number of teenagers who seemed to do that, although most of them rode hoverboards. Danny Phantom, on the other hand, could do corkscrews around The Revenant or the Red Huntress. With a cocky smile and a witty joke, he'd swoop down out of nowhere, fight other ghosts intruding on what most people assumed was "his" haunt, and disappear as quickly as he came.

Public opinion was divided, to say the least. He stood accused of attacking the mayor, taking part in a major string of jewelry heists and bank robberies, and a break-in at Axion Labs to name just a few. Besides that, every time he fought other ghosts, there was usually collateral damage. At this point, there were some streets in Amity Park that were more patches and potholes than pavement. Keen observers even noticed that when Phantom started showing up more and more frequently, Danny Fenton took up the mantle of The Revenant; clearly, the Fentons viewed the ghost as a threat.

Still... He did protect the people. Nobody died on his watch, no matter how dangerous the opponent. But being the spirit of a dead person did little to win over the PTA crowd. Some contended that he seemed far too life-like to be _just another ghost_ , but they were in the minority, and few took them too seriously.

It was a ridiculous notion. One couldn't be alive and dead at the same time.

* * *

It was a bright October day, some two months after Danny Fenton began hunting ghosts. "Revenant" had been out trying to corral a herd of unruly ectopuses until 4 in the morning, and Danny found himself on his second late-slip of the day by lunchtime.

Sam and Tucker found him at a quiet outdoor table sleeping face-first in a pile of corn.

"Man, Danny must be really hungry."

Sam rolled her eyes. "Pretty sure he's just asleep again." She dropped her tray onto right next to him, where it landed with a loud clattering sound. When he didn't stir, she sighed, before calling out, "Oh no, it's a horrible ghost! Whoever will save us?"

Danny snapped to attention, blinking kernels out of his eyes. "Wassat? Where's the ghost?"

"Dude. This isn't healthy." Tucker sat down across from him. "You fell asleep in your lunch. And it's not even good lunch."

"Yeah, well, I was out... I mean, _Revenant_ was out late last night, and uh... I'm tired for a really good, unrelated reason."

"We literally all know it's you, Fenton," a redhead called out from a nearby table. "Skip the stupid excuses or keep 'em to yourself."

With a frown, Danny leaned forward and continued at a lower volume. "If there isn't _really_ a ghost I might actually try to get some shut-eye. I still have like half the day to get through..."

Sam peeked over his shoulder, pointing skyward. "Well, actually..."

Danny buried his face in his hands, groaning, as Tucker spoke up between mouthfuls of pizza. "It's only Technus, why don't you just leave him to Phantom?"

That earned him a glare. Danny pushed his tray away and stood tall over the table. "Times have changed, guys. We can't trust ghosts to solve our problems anymore." (That earned a shout of "You tell 'em, Rev!" from a passerby) "I'm going to go take care of him. _Both_ of them if I need to."

As the hunter ran off to find a secluded space to change and deploy his hoverboard, Danny Phantom flew high overhead, hot on the tail of the ghostly madman.

"Come on Technus, what's the plan this time?" The wind whipped at Danny's hair as he easily kept pace with the slower ghost, grinning toothily. "Are you gonna take over an appliance store? I can see it now!" he flipped over onto his back, still flying forward, and gesturing as if unveiling a headline. " _Attack of The Blender Banshee!_ No, wait, _The Stovetop Specter Scare!_ That's got a nice ring to it, right?"

Technus frowned, trying to outfly Danny who in turn lazily barrel-rolled to the upright position above Technus. "Try as you might with your goading ghost child, I, Technus 3.5, will never reveal my plans to you!"

"3.5 already! Did I miss Technus 3.11 For Workgroups? Or was it _Wraith_ groups?"

A green bolt of energy forced the pair of ghosts to split up, Danny falling back slightly with a yelp.

Danny, disguised as Revenant, faced down the ghost with his name. "Your puns are only getting worse, Phantom."

Phantom's good humor darkened at the new arrival. "Oh good, you again."

Technus slowed, looking over the new situation with some surprise. "Stereo ghost childs? That's interesting. Very interesting!"

Danny pointed a thumb at the more immediately hostile of the two ghosts. "So what's his plan?"

Phantom shrugged. "Hasn't told me. Must be something boring like taking over an appliance store, I guess."

"Again?"

"Hey!" Technus gave an indignant shout, "my plan is not boring! Today, I will assume control of the human Space Command, and rule the very galaxy! It is the most hip and trendy plan I've had since 1982!"

Phantom cracked another broad grin, even in spite of the hunter present. "Hey, thanks! I was wondering what crazy scheme you cooked up this time."

"Drat!" Realizing he had lost the element of surprise and was outnumbered to boot, Technus quickly shot off, heading off toward the hills surrounding Amity Park.

Smug grin still firmly in place, Phantom struck off after him, only to be jerked back suddenly by the tug of a fishing line. At the other end, Danny was busily reeling in the Fenton Fisher, dragging the ghost closer to him. "Great work ghost," he shouted across the gap, "Technus realized he had spilled his plan and shot off to put it into action. If you'd kept your mouth shut for 10 seconds I'd have him in the thermos."

Phantom looked unimpressed. "Yeah? Well, great work hero, while you were busy fly-fishing the two of us have completely lost sight of him."

"Maybe I don't trust you following behind me, ghost."

"Behind _you_? Do you think the crowd wants to see who can outfly who here?" Phantom asked, pointing at the rapidly growing group of spectators gathering just below them.

"Do you think _they_ want to know where _you_ really came from?"

The ghost narrowed his eyes at Danny. "Only if you think they want to know the _whole story_."

Danny took the threat as it was intended, given that a sizable crowd was within earshot below. "...Fine. Truce?"

Plucking the hook from his jumpsuit, the specter nodded and a white glove clasped black. "Truce."

The pair caught sight of Technus over the suburban hinterlands of Polter Heights, where the ghost seemed to be searching for something. Danny and Phantom finally caught up with him, attacking as one.

Danny shot an ecto-suppression disk at Technus' back as Phantom fired a particularly large orb of ecto-energy; the two managed to collide in mid-air, sailing over the target's shoulder.

"What?! Where did that come from...?" The ghost spun around to face his attackers. "The ghost childs again. Here to interrupt my search, I bet. Oh, wait..." Technus seemed to notice something behind the Dannys, his face lighting up as he recognized what he was seeing. "Say, that's exactly what I've been looking for! Thank you!"

As he shot by underneath the pair, Danny shot Phantom a glare, which was returned in kind.

They followed him to the State University grounds, where he flew straight for the science annex. He dipped easily through a wall, causing Danny to glide to a stop. He would need to enter through one of the doors, although all the ones on the near side of the building were suddenly clogged with fleeing students. With a dramatic sigh, Phantom grabbed him by the arm. "Come on, 'Revenant'..."

Danny kicked and struggled as intangibility washed over him for the first time in a while. "Gah! What the..." His words were suddenly cut off as they passed through brickwork, before an abrupt return to corporality on the other side. He glared at the ghost once more, hovering carefully above the student body below. "You could warn a guy next time."

"Yeah, well, you could warn me before you fire one of the only things that can deflect _my_ attacks."

"Me? _Your_ attack deflected my weaponry! And now... Look, there's no time for this. I have no idea what 'Space Command' is, but we've gotta find where in the heck Technus flew off to."

The ghost pointed simply, one eyebrow quirked. "We could always follow where the students are running from?"

"Nice idea, but that hallway is way too cramped to fly through."

"Then consider this your warning!" With a wicked grin, Phantom flew straight at the hunter and pushed him intangibly over (and occasionally through) the heads of the people below.

Soon, they were at the most deserted part of the building. Danny retracted his hoverboard while Phantom landed on two tangible feet. The space around them, ironically, was a planetarium; the seats were arranged in circles around a central apparatus that was currently projecting an image of the night sky onto the domed ceiling. Dancing sparks and the arcing pops of electricity alerted them to Technus' presence at the far side of the room, where a bank of electronic equipment and computers sat partially disassembled and hastily reconnected to the ghost's robotic body.

"Eureka! I've done it!"

"Dang it, are we too late...?"

Phantom shook his head. "Not a chance. We've got this, Dan- Uh, Revenant."

Technus cackled when he finally noticed their presence. "Actually, you are far too late! I know have _complete control_ over this Space Command computer device! Now I just need to figure out how to... Work it... Aha! My reign begins _now!_ "

The room glowed a faint green as his spectral energy ran along every wire and conduit, and the emergency lighting first turning on and then off again as the bulbs flared and exploded in their casings. "Fear me! Technus _4.0_ and the might of... What does this servo do..."

After a moment of darkness, the lights of the planetarium projector turned on, and the stars shifted to display the night sky in the southern hemisphere.

"Wait, no, that's not the right control... _Now_ fear me!"

The stars rotated through a night's worth of motion before a simulated sun rose.

Phantom nearly burst out laughing. "Technus... You had no idea what 'Space Command' was before you got here, did you?"

Danny shook his head, adding, "I'm pretty sure it's just a fancy name for their projector software."

"I... Curses! At least you will never _capture_ me, for Technus _4.0_ is—"

Phantom turned to face Danny. "Ready, Revenant?"

With a nod, Danny pulled his goggles off his face, mirthful blue eyes meeting green. "Go ahead, Phantom."

The ghost reached his arms into Technus' jury-rigged computer setup, literally dragging the ghost out of the audio-visual equipment. With a toss, and against the elder ghost's objections, Danny capably and quickly sucked him into a Fenton Thermos, prematurely ending his "reign".

Phantom flew over to Danny, stopping short of the exit door. "Might want to goggle up, we've got company." Some of the braver onlookers were already leaning into the doorway, surveying the carnage. As Danny quickly readjusted his disguise, the ghost teen clapped him on the shoulder on his way out. "Amazing what we can do when we work together, isn't it?"

Danny looked down at the thermos, turning it over in his hand. He was inclined to agree.

* * *

Danny Fenton was finally getting to bed on time.

Danny Phantom was just as tired, if not slightly more so.

And so, Phantom found himself in the bedroom of the youngest Fenton as the human walked in, pajama-clad, and still smelling of toothpaste. In spite of his public-facing alter-ego, Danny didn't seem particularly surprised to see the ghostly hero there.

"How long have we been doing this?"

Danny shrugged. "Well, it was August when we destroyed Vlad's cloning lab, so about two months?"

"No, no..." The ghost sighed, slumping down onto the bed. "I mean, how long have we been doing _this_ specifically?" he asked, gesturing between the two of them.

"Oh! I see. I guess about 10 days now. You want to switch?"

" _Ohgodyes._ " The reply spoke of immediate relief.

With a wry grin, Danny Fenton pumped two fists in the air. "Goin' ghost!"

A pair of white rings washed over his body, and soon Danny Phantom was sitting on a bed looking at his duplicate. With a tired smile, he silently performed the opposite transformation, turning into a very human Danny Fenton, and immediately falling over into the warmth of the sheets. "Thanks, Danny."

"Hey, anything to mess with the fruitloop, right? Have a good sleep, Danny." With a wink, the ghost shot out the window, ready for a night's mischief.

Because obviously, you could never hide who you were _just_ by changing your clothing. And _one_ person couldn't be alive and dead at the same time, don't be ridiculous.

* * *

Author's Note:

 _Welcome back to_ _Analog, where this week the clone shenanigans continue with hopefully not **quite** the twist you were expecting. I_ _will offer a shiny dime and a handful of peanuts to anyone who can name the short story I was most influenced by when writing this. Not just in terms of plot, either. I think some of its flavors may have bled in, as well, albeit mostly in the early sections._

 _Either way, we are now 40% of the way through this collection; I hope you are all still enjoying it! Next week, something involving more Dani and Vlad._

 _14/10/2017 - Changed some wording, grammar fixes._


	3. Chapter 3: phase

**phase  
** _n._ **1** a state of synchronicity; the property by which a signal is in step with others. **2** a period in which a person behaves in a new fashion, associated with experimentation and growth.

* * *

Who was she?

It was a question more relevant to her than perhaps most teens who asked themselves the question. In most cases, they would have been raised through a childhood, experienced years of cruelty and kindness, countless moments of small joys and discoveries, and come out the other side of that first decade, perhaps bruised, but wiser.

She, on the other hand, had been alive for three weeks, two days, sixteen hours, and roughly 45 minutes. Roughly.

Even in so little time as that, things had been rather chaotic. The first face she had seen had cold, calculating eyes; searching eyes, probing eyes, but not loving eyes. She had been willing to look past that for the sake of belonging, that essential feeling of connection, but instead, she only found herself even more firmly on the outside of her father's life. Far away from him, lying to the only other person who she had ever known.

Asked to spy, to coerce, and when the time was right? Attack.

The final betrayal was not hers, however. Clearly, he had never really cared for her, she was simply a means to an end. In her darker moments, she had speculated that even when he had found the cure for the clones' instability, once he had saved his "prime clone"... Would he even bother to save her? Was she meant to be single-use, a disposable person like the other "lesser" beings?

The creak of a door. She twitched instinctively, adrenaline rushing, fight-or-flight mode activated.

"Danielle?"

She sat up in bed to face the voice in the doorway. Danny. Her... Cousin? Brother? Father? Progenitor? "...yeah? What's up?"

"Just wanted to check in. You know, to see if you were comfortable." He rubbed the back of his neck; she could only see his silhouette in the light of the hallway, but she knew he had an awkward half-frown. She knew this because she would have, too. The look of a fish out of water.

"I'm fine, just... Not used to the bed."

"Heh. Yeah, I guess it must be a big change from the—" He stopped in the middle of the thought. He discarded it. He began a new one. "Well, try to get some sleep. We've got a big day tomorrow." A slight pause, where she had nothing to add. "...I'm right across the hall if you need anything. Good night, Dani."

"Yeah. You too." She smiled a small smile. He returned it and closed the door behind him, leaving her in almost complete darkness.

Danielle wouldn't dwell on _him_ anymore. She was with people who cared, now. Really cared. With Vlad, there was always that coldness she had to choose to ignore. Here there was only warmth. It had taken some... "convincing", on Danny's part for the Fenton parents to think that she was an estranged relative, but once the overshadowing was out of the way she was accepted with open arms. With Vlad, she had to ignore his faults and hope he knew best. With the Fentons, she had people to look up to.

Danny most of all. And looking up to him, she realized, she had a lot of measuring up to do.

* * *

More than a few second glances landed on Dani and Danny the next day. Danny usually got his fair share to start with since he usually looked tired and disheveled. A girl who looked to be 11 or 12 years old attending high school might have earned a few looks, too. But the fact that Dani followed him as closely as his shadow (and bore more of a resemblance besides) had people whispering in hushed tones that were fully audible across the hallway.

Dani stuck by his side for every class that morning; she seemed to have the same general knowledge as Danny, and while that may not have been saying all that much, with some light coercion of Principal Ishiyama she had been successfully placed in the same grade. After three introductions by teachers and three identical recitations of the rehearsed backstory for Danielle, word had gotten around and interest died out. By lunch, Danny, Sam, and Tucker had regained their status as largely-ignored social outcasts, now plus one. Not that Sam or Tucker minded the addition, especially since it meant they now had somebody else to talk to in Danny's absence.

"So Dani, how's the first day going?" Sam had split a salad with the younger Fenton, after the contents of her lunch bag had growled at her.

Dani shrugged, poking at a cherry tomato. "Not bad, I guess. This school stuff is kind of boring, I dunno how Danny puts up with it. Especially when we could just..."

"...fly out the nearest ceiling or something?"

The younger girl smiled. "Yeah. Or something."

"Well, we could do something after school today. We never did get a chance to thank you for saving us from being grounded forever." Tucker sat across the table from her, eating his meatloaf with unusual restraint. "How about the Nasty Burger?"

"... _Tucker_ , you always suggest the Nasty Burger."

"And I've yet to be disappointed, _Sam_!"

When she realized the same tomato had been picked and prodded halfway across the table, Dani set her fork down. "Will Danny be there?"

Tucker blinked, apparently trying to process an answer other than _'absolutely yes let's go get cheeseburgers'_. "I dunno, probably?"

"You could ask him yourself." Sam pointed over Dani's shoulder with a plastic knife. Following the cutlery, she looked over her shoulder and saw her... Well, Danny, half-jogging through the lunchroom doors, sweating and winded. After a quick scan of the room, he made his way over to their table and sat down next to Dani.

"Hey, guys. Hoo..." He caught his breath for a moment, before smiling. "Skulker was _not_ looking to make things easy today. But I got him! You should have seen it, he tried hitting me with those stupid ghost-seeking missiles, so I flew underground, and when they lost my signature they spun around and hit him square in the jaw!"

The explanation had been accompanied by some wild hand gestures that had Dani entranced. Sam just raised an eyebrow before pointing back at the door, at a windswept and slightly dusty Valerie Grey who was just returning to the cafeteria herself. "You had a little help from Val the Impaler, huh?"

If either Fenton heard that jibe, they gave no sign of it. "So, whatcha talking about?"

"We were going to take Dani out to the Nasty Burger after school."

"Oh, cool. That should be fun." Danny started in on a sandwich he had packed. It also growled up at him, but he didn't seem to mind as much. "It'll be your first time outside in public, practically, won't it?"

He had directed the question at Danielle, who ignored it. "Are you going to come with us?"

"We-ell..." Her heart sank a bit. "I'd like to, but I kind of have to help Dad build a new specter speeder. He's trying to build one that goes '50% better', although he didn't really say what that was supposed to mean... You should totally go without me though, it'll be fun!"

"Oh..." The tomato was finally speared on the fork. "OK..."

"Hey, chin up Dani, everybody likes the Nasty Burger!" Tucker beamed down at her as they walked down the sidewalk, the golden afternoon light of late autumn sunshine leading the way off the school grounds. She didn't reply.

"To be clear, not _everyone_ likes Nasty Burger," Sam made a bit of a face while saying the name, which perhaps proved her point, "but I promise we're at least as fun as Danny."

"Some would say even funner," Tucker added sagely.

"More fun," Sam corrected.

"Yeah, that's what I said. Anyway, just wait until you try their ice cream. They have this new peanut butter/fudge shake that's supposed to be good. And Sam's buying!" With a grin, Tucker ran ahead of them, sailing past the flagpole at the restaurant's front door.

"...hey, wait, what? Maybe for Dani, but not you, you dork!" Sam called after him, giving chase.

Dani jogged to keep up, trying to stay positive. They were Danny's friends, so she would probably like them too. Right?

* * *

The trio sat in a back booth nursing three tall frosty milkshakes. Tucker had gone for the peanut butter and fudge (four of them and counting, in fact), while Sam opted for a vegan kale-licorice soy shake. Dani had ordered Danny's usual, mint strawberry, and was sipping it slowly. It tasted a lot weirder than she had thought it would.

Tucker and Sam sat across from her and made every effort to include her in their conversations. Danielle just wasn't feeling all that talkative. Eventually, they lapsed into an easy silence that didn't seem to bother the other two, but Dani was constantly worrying was awkward.

When she couldn't quite stand it anymore, she finally spoke up of her own volition.

"So, um—"

An explosion sounded from across the street, a car erupting into a green fireball. Danny Phantom surged out of the wreck, eyes set in determination, before rising to meet the descending form of Skulker. The conversation between the two ghosts was lost through the sound of screaming within the restaurant. About half the crowd— mostly adults, the teenagers being a little bit too used to this kind of thing— scattered almost instantly, whereas those remaining just shifted over to tables located on the far side of the building from the fight.

When Dani looked back at her dining companions, she saw they had both grabbed their backpacks. Tucker was already out of the booth and on his way to the door, which left her facing Sam directly. The girl put a hand on her shoulder. Dani didn't flinch.

"Danny is probably going to need our help," and looking past Sam, Dani could see Danny take off in terror as Skulker shot another salvo of missiles, "but we'll be right back. Just stay here, alright? Stay inside, and stay safe."

Assuming she would cooperate, Sam followed Tucker out of the building, and the last Dani saw of her was a short ponytail disappearing around the corner of the building.

The entire exchange had taken perhaps a minute, and Dani now sat alone.

Five minutes later, she was starting to get bored.

Ten minutes later, she had managed to drink about half the milkshake, staring gloomily at the unwanted portion, stirring it idly with her straw.

A tray dropping onto the table with a thud brought her out of her reverie.

"So you're Danny Fenton's cousin, Danielle."

It came out half as a question, half as a statement of fact. It was being asked/stated by a tall, curvy girl with dark hair and shockingly green eyes. A white and red polo with its prominent letter "N" identified her as an employee.

Her name tag identified her as "Val the Impaler", as Sam had called her.

"Geez, relax kid, you look like a deer in headlights." Valerie sat down before starting in on her fries, offering one to Dani. After a pause, she took the fry. The trepidation actually made Valerie chuckle. "Don't look so spooked, I'm not going to hurt you or anything. So what, you're new in town and eating alone?"

"Oh, I um... Well, I was here with Sam Manson and Tucker Foley, but they had to... They'll be back, it's just there was that thing. And they left for a moment."

Valerie nodded slowly. "Uh huh. ...Not used to ghost attacks, are you?"

"What? No! Why do you ask?"

"Sorry, I didn't mean to give you the third degree. You just seemed uncomfortable." In saying that, Val made no obvious movement toward leaving.

There was another moment of silence. Valerie looked at her expectantly, and only broke the silence when it became clear Dani wasn't going to.

"You never did answer my question."

"Um, which...?"

"You're Danny's cousin."

The younger girl temporarily forgot she was sitting across from a deadly, dangerous hunter. She furrowed her brows and shot back, "That wasn't really a question, was it?"

Another short chuckle. "I think I like you. I meant, are you 'Danielle', or what do I call you?"

"Oh." She shuffled in her seat. "Dani. With an I."

"Doesn't that ever get confusing back home? Don't your aunt and uncle say, like, 'Hey Danni, pass me that ecto-sprocket-configurator,' or whatever, 'and Dany can you turn down the flux capacitor' and you both have no idea who they were talking to?"

Dani giggled at the imitation of Jack's blustery voice. Val smiled triumphantly.

"Hey, got you to laugh! You should do it more often." Val wiped off her hands with a napkin, balling it up and throwing it back onto the tray while Dani recomposed herself. "So, how long as you going to be staying with Danny, anyway?"

"Not much longer."

Both girls turned sharply to face the voice, which had come from thin air next to them. The smug form of Vlad Plasmius faded into visibility, grabbing Danielle before she could phase away.

It didn't stop her from kicking and trying to wriggle out of his grip, even as the much larger ghost carried her through the roof and high above the concrete jungle below. "Come now, child, why are you fighting me? I'm going to take you home!"

Danielle was about to tell him exactly what she thought of that plan when a purple ray shot in front of Plasmius, who had to swerve violently to miss it. She didn't scream. She didn't flinch. She even remembered to keep trying to escape his grasp. Like a hero would. If real heroes ever got caught in the first place.

The Red Huntress looked very heroic, flying toward Vlad on her hoverboard, decked out in her ghost-hunting suit. "You aren't taking her anywhere, ghost. Now put her down and I'll shoot."

Vlad scoffed, one arm around Dani's neck and apparently oblivious to her continued flailing. "I believe you mean 'or you'll shoot', my dear."

With narrowed eyes, the hunter spat back, "No, I didn't." A well-placed shot to Vlad's gut caught him by surprise, and with a yelp of pain, he dropped Danielle.

She didn't remember not to scream. But she did remember she could fly, swapping to her ghost form on the descent, and turning back toward Vlad with a look of pure venom. The venom drained almost instantly as she looked at Valerie Grey, who had been flying down to catch her, whose expression morphed first from worry, then to shock, and then to anger. Before either girl said anything, another purple ray of energy hit Valerie in the back.

Vlad looked pissed.

"Out of my way, pawn!" He clutched at Dani protectively, aiming another shot at Val, who only just managed not to fall straight off her board. "We're leaving, and if I ever see you near my daughter again, I swear—!"

Dani screwed her eyes up in concentration. It took more energy than she should be using. She felt her molecules loosen, which was as uncomfortable as always. But she had more of Danny's tricks up her sleeve than Vlad gave her credit for. "I... Am not... Your daughter!" Her shouts reverberated through the air. It wasn't as powerful as Danny's ghostly wail, and really only stunned Vlad for a moment, but it was good enough.

Plasmius shook himself off and reared up for another attack, although the sound of rocket engines made him hesitate.

"Hey ghost, I heard you guys liked missiles!" Dani could nearly _hear_ the smirk in Valerie's voice as the ghost-targeting missiles flew forth from under her hoverboard, forcing a less-than-strategic retreat.

Which was just as well, because Dani could have sworn gravity felt stronger than normal all of a sudden.

* * *

When she came to, she was lying on the roof of the Nasty Burger. Valerie was standing over her. Suddenly, Sam's nickname for her seemed far more appropriate.

"So."

Words spewed forth without Dani really intending for them to escape. "He was lying! I'm not his daughter, I swear! It's just... There was this lab, and I got rescued, and Danny— The thing is, he and I... He's not my cousin, and Plasmius wanted a perfect child, and— _Why are you laughing?_ "

Valerie chuckled and reached a hand down. Hesitantly, Dani took it and was hefted back onto her feet. "Come on kid, it's obvious."

"...it is?"

To her further confusion, Val actually retracted her suit. Black and red were replaced once again with a plain, harmless uniform. "Yeah, that stupid Plasmius thing wanted a sidekick, so it tried to clone Phantom, but you turned out to be half-human and went to Amity Park's ghost experts for help." She said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world, even though the explanation sounded ridiculous.

No more ridiculous than the truth, she supposed. "Uh, yeah. That's exactly how it happened." She transformed back into Dani Fenton, while nodding vigorously. "Although um... Could you not mention this to anyone? At all? Ever?"

"'course not, can you imagine how freaked out people would be if there were half-human ghosts running around saving people? Besides, you know my secret, so my lips are sealed as long as yours are." While Dani tried to find words of gratitude, Valerie checked her watch, then groaned. "Damn, I'm late getting back from lunch." She heaved open a hatch on the roof and lowered herself onto the ladder. She paused a few rungs down.

"You know, you're more than where you came from, Dani. Remember that."

* * *

She thought a lot about that for some time. Sunset found her sitting on the back step, which is where Danny found her as well. "Hey, Dani! Sam and Tucker said sorry for having to bail, they said you were gone when they got back."

Danielle shrugged. "It's no big deal."

Danny took a seat next to her. The concrete was cold, although neither half-ghost needed to worry about that. "So what did you think of 'a day in the life'?" he asked jokingly.

With a sigh, she leaned back. "I don't think it's for me."

"...wait, what? Really?"

"...yeah." Dani stood suddenly and took a few steps into the back yard. "I've been thinking about some advice I got. And, it's been really nice of you and your parents to let me stay here... But, I'm not you, Danny."

He looked very confused. "Uh, I know. _I'm_ me. Are you feeling OK?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, thanks. My molecules are still screaming at me, but 'sides from that..." She rolled her eyes. "I can't live your life. It's like... If I tried to live out Vlad's weird fruitloopy plans for me. Less evil, but still, it's not _me_. I can't just live other people's lives. There's something out there that _I'm_ supposed to be, you know?"

"I think I might get what you mean. So... Who are you?" Danny had a playful glimmer in his eyes as he said it.

"...I think I'm going to go try to find that out." With a flash of light, Dani Phantom lifted off from the Fentons' backyard, but she paused before taking flight. "Thanks again, really. Everything you've done for me... I wouldn't have gotten this far without you. Literally."

"It's no problem. Just don't be a stranger, OK?"

"Don't worry... You'll see me again!"

She took off into the twilight sky, and for the first time in her life... She didn't care about her past, or her short life. Now she had a future.

* * *

Author's Note:

 _Pardon the lateness! Apparently, computers require electricity to remain functional, though fortunately the entire first half or so of this was written on actual **paper** if you can believe such a thing. Hopefully, this chapter gave you enough warm fuzzies to make up for the delay. And now, having hit the peak of said warm fuzzies, we begin our tonal descent back downward (in other words, the natural habitat of Workparty)._

 _Reviewer Randoma made an excellent guess to last week's challenge with_ Phantom Alone _; while that is one of my top 5 favorite things being published now on this website (if you have not yet read Unlucky Alis' work, you are doing yourself a disservice), it was not the answer. It was actually a non-horror-story from one of my favorite authors, Shirley Jackson, called_ An Ordinary Day, With Peanuts _. I read it in school many years ago, but it has stuck with me ever since. A very easy read, one I highly recommend._

 _See you next Tuesday!_


	4. Chapter 4: signal

**signal  
** _v._ to indicate, show, or otherwise make known thoughts and intentions.  
 _n._ an electrical or electromagnetic action meant to convey information.

* * *

It was all a little _too_ convincing.

Any human wanting to catch a glimpse of the mansion's expansive backyard would have to run across at least 50 yards of open grass to even get to the tall privacy hedge; even then, the foliage was just a front to cover up the tall stone walls topped with wrought iron spikes. And that's if you weren't caught on one of the many, many, _many_ CCTV cameras facing outward in every direction, and escorted off the premises by security faster than you could say "fondue".

And behind it all, the two were just tossing a football back and forth. The Phantom clone even laughed when he just barely caught one of Vlad-as-Plasmius' harder throws. They were both all smiles.

Danny was entirely sure that they knew he was watching, and they were acting accordingly. It had to be, otherwise, they would have had to just keep this up all the time on the off chance he was watching. Although they didn't spend all their time outdoors, so perhaps that would have been a cheaper failsafe than he thought.

It was kind of hard to put himself in their minds, after all. He wasn't a paranoid crazy person.

Danny sighed and lowered himself out of the tree he had wedged himself in to spy on them. The sun was setting, and he'd been in Wisconsin for almost the whole day. He'd need to leave back for Amity Park soon or he'd be a zombie in school the next day.

It had been three weeks already. Why didn't they just make their move?

* * *

"Losing sleep again, huh Danny? …Danny? **Danny!** "

"Bwuh-? Imawake, wuswrong?"

Sam seemed deeply unimpressed with that response. "Did you get any sleep last night, like, at _all_?"

"Mmhm… Sleep…" Danny was in serious danger of falling asleep in his seat again until a slight shove jolted him out of his stupor. "Sorry… Yeah, I must've slept like… 3 hours? 2, at least."

Tucker shook his head sadly. "All that sleep deprivation, and it's not even being used for video games."

"I'll be fine, I just need my coffee… Where did I put my coffee?"

"Right here, you dork." Sam leaned over toward Danny's desk and pushed the white disposable cup more directly in front of him. He took it gratefully and took a swig like a man dying of thirst; the coffee was burbling behind the plastic lid as it struggled to let enough air through for how quickly the liquid was being drained. "You do realize what you're doing is crazy, right?"

Danny sighed deeply and reluctantly set the cup back down. "It's not crazy. They're up to something, I just know it."

"Or," Tucker chimed in, "maybe Vlad really is happy with his new clone-heir and you're worrying for literally no reason? Come on, they're not even in this _state_ , what could possibly go wrong?"

"Serious answer?" Danny jabbed the lid with a pen, widening the optimistically-undersized air hole. "How about I get kidnapped again and Vlad tries to replace me with a clone? Or maybe the fruitloop wants to make half-ghost/half-human clones and he kills me trying to figure out how that works?" He downed the remainder of the coffee in a few gulps, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand and tossing the cup into the trash bin across the room. "Until I've gotten to the bottom of this, I'm not stopping."

* * *

True to his word, the next weekend he was back, lying as inconspicuously as possible across a bough of a tree closer than ever before to the Masters' expansive estate. Unfortunately, Danny had forgotten his binoculars at Fentonworks, necessitating a change from his normal hiding spot, in a sturdy oak some distance away.

It wouldn't have been a problem if he'd paid more attention to the strength of his chosen replacement tree, but that was only obvious in retrospect, staring up from the ground at the remaining branches, met by the unimpressed faces of Danny Phantom and Vlad Plasmius staring down at him.

"Hello, Daniel."

"...hi, Vlad."

"Nice of you to drop in!"

Danny groaned inwardly at his clone's awful pun. Either his sense of humor didn't survive the cloning process unscathed, or he needed to be concerned. "Phantom."

"Still worried me and dad are up to no good? World domination or something?"

"Honestly my boy, I had taken you for an intelligent lad." A now human Vlad tutted at him, or at least his presumed motives. In actual fact, Danny _had_ been worried the two were plotting world domination, but he wasn't about to say that.

"I guess it's flattering? If we just want to talk about positives, I mean. That you think we could take over the world if we wanted to. Or had any reason to. Or if it was even possible to do, which I don't think it is," the clone mused aloud. Danny did his best to ignore him, preferring to concentrate on the dull, aching pain all over his body; when the clone reached a gloved hand down to help him up, he ignored that too, hefting himself up.

And then quite suddenly he was on the ground again, a very _sharp_ pain in his ankle demanding his full attention.

"Generally, it is inadvisable to stand on a sprained ankle, little badger." Vlad struggled to be heard over Danny's cursing but plowed on regardless. "It would be best for you to stay the night. I shall have a room prepared."

"Oh man, you're staying over? It'll be just like a sleepover!" Clone-Danny had a ridiculous grin plastered on his stupid face, as he pulled Danny up by the arm, slinging it over his shoulder. "I've always wanted to get to know you better! This'll be _so cool!_ "

Danny could hardly believe what he was hearing, and if he had any other option he would have already put a few zip codes between him and this kid. "You are officially the weirdest dude, you know that?"

The clone gave him a wry grin. "Well yeah, I'm a clone of **you** , what did you expect?"

* * *

The room he was in contained one bed, four end tables, one bureau, a broad writing desk and hutch, two plush sofas with a stout coffee table, a fireplace, one elegant vase, and a non-functioning mantel-clock rendered redundant and forgotten by a bright green LCD clock radio.

Danny knew this because he had carefully checked every single one of them. It had taken at least 45 minutes of hop-jumping around the room, but he had taken every single book off of every shelf, rifled through every drawer, opened every door, and checked under every surface. The room contained no microphones, cameras, motion detectors, deadfall traps, knock-out-gas delivery nozzles, and he was fairly sure there weren't any secret entrances.

He had just managed to hobble back to the bed and lay down, staring wide-awake up at the ceiling, when he was reminded that his clone didn't need a secret entrance to get in.

"Hiya Danny!" Danny yelped as his field of vision was abruptly filled with his clone's grinning face, having phased through the wall above his headboard, white hair and teeth gleaming right until he had to go intangible to avoid a punch.

With a chuckle, the ghost floated fully into the room before dropping down on the other side of the bed, sitting up on his arm to face Danny, who had just about managed to get his heart stop trying to beat out of his chest. "Never do that again, Phantom. You scared me half to death. Don't say it," he added quickly when Phantom moved to reply.

"Pfft, fine, Mr. Grouch. I just wanted to see if you were comfortable."

"You mean comfortable with the fact that I'm in the house of the guy who kidnapped me, speaking with the clone he created with the aid of a creepy hologram copy of my mom when he couldn't Stockholm-syndrome me into renouncing my dad and staying here to be his slave," he counted off one finger, "or do you mean 'comfortable' as in 'is the bed OK'?" and he raised the second.

The clone pouted. "Ok, first of all, that's kinda hurtful. And I meant the bed."

"It's fine, thanks. The pajamas Vlad has in my size and favorite brand are great too. Is that all?" Phantom just continued to look hurt at the implications. He seemed to be just on the cusp of leaping to Vlad's defense, and Danny preemptively rolled his eyes. "Come on, just spit it out so I can go back to not sleeping."

"Why do you hate me?" the clone blurted out.

A beat.

Another beat.

"...what?"

"I said, why do you hate me?" Phantom sat up more fully, sitting back on his boots. "You keep saying these awful things about me and dad, and I get that you two have had a little spat, but what did _I_ ever do to you?"

"You have a funny definition of 'little spat'," Danny said.

Phantom didn't seem impressed. "I'm not going to leave until you answer my question, Danny."

Danny frowned. "Look, I don't hate _you_. I just... When I'm talking to you, I'm basically just talking to Vlad, right? So—"

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"Well, uh... Don't take this the wrong way, but uh... Vlad programmed you, you know that right?"

"Programmed me." A questioning statement.

"Yeah, I mean, you have all the memories of a person, but you aren't really. Not like a full person anyway. You were just made by Vlad a couple of weeks ago, so how can I really be talking to 'you', as some kind of separate... Person. Thing." At the other's confused expression, he backpedaled slightly. "Which isn't to say you can't be a person someday! But right now you're probably more 'Vlad' than even you realize. No offense."

"You say that like there's a clear divide... But what if..." Phantom leaned in, green irises shining intensely in the darkened room, "What if _you_ were the real clone?"

Danny's mouth made all the correct motions to respond, but no sound came out. He shifted to sit upright, gaping like a fish until his voice finally returned to him. "You're kidding, right? There's just no way... Could there...?"

A look of some horror spread across his face before the other boy finally cracked, losing his composure. "Pfft... No, of course not. I'm all the clone anyone needs, and I don't really want any competition besides. ...but man, you should have seen your face!"

Danny threw a pillow at his head, and the specter ended up a cackling mess, nearly falling over with laughter. "Yeah, well, when you spend a year getting attacked by a fruitloop with a cloning lab you pretty quickly get used to second-guessing these things. Why else did you think I had put so much thought into all this?"

Phantom finally calmed himself down, although the smile remained fixed in place. "Sorry, I guess. But you're gonna have to learn how to relax sooner or later."

"I can't exactly 'relax' around Vlad, I don't know if you've noticed."

"Has he actually attacked you at all since I've been around? Attacked anyone?"

"Well... No, but it's only been 4 weeks. He's gone longer without trying anything in the past."

"But I'm telling you, dad hasn't been _plotting_ or anything. It's not like I haven't heard stories you know, of what you two have been through, but... He seriously just needed some human— Or, well, social contact. You know what I mean." The ghostly teen waved a hand dismissively. "Trust me, the man raising me? You don't need to worry about him anymore. Dad's turned over a whole new leaf."

Danny frowned. "That's the thing, I can't trust you. You're not... And seriously, don't take this personally, but as a month-old clone, are you even _human_ enough to know right from wrong?"

To his surprise, the clone lit up with a snap and a smile. Danny didn't much like that reaction, and he liked the proposal even less. "I bet I could prove you can trust me!"

"...you can what?"

"Remember when Tucker was talking about that guy who invented computers or whatever, and that test to see if someone was a human or a machine?"

"Well, _I_ remember it..." Danny grumbled, but Phantom carried on regardless.

"A Turing test, that's what it was called! So you just ask me some questions, anything you like, and unless you think Vlad could have prepared me for _literally anything_ you can ask, that'll prove my case, right?"

The clone looked incredibly pleased with himself. Danny just groaned inwardly; he wasn't getting out of this without humoring the clone, so he might as well just try to dredge up the weird morality puzzles Jazz had spent the previous summer reading from her psychology textbook.

Danny shifted on the bed so he, too, was sitting upright; sleep was far from his mind by now. "Uh, OK... So, let's say there's a trolley—"

"What's a trolley?"

"...it's like a train that's also a bus. So there's a trolley that's hurtling down a track, and there's these five people tied down in front of it. You could pull a switch and redirect the trolley, but then it'll go onto a track where it'll kill this one dude. What do you do?"

"What did they do?"

"Sorry?"

"Why are they tied down in front of a train-bus? Is this some kind of cartoonish death penalty thing, and they're like murderers?"

"No, they're not murderers." Danny sighed, rubbing his temples, "Who they are isn't important. Or you don't know them anyway."

The clone scratched his chin for a moment but still answered quickly. "I'd have to pull the switch."

"Y'see, normal people can't answer that quickly, that's what's wrong with you."

"...what's wrong with _you_? The obvious answer is to pull the switch so you can phase the ropes off the one guy and free him."

Danny blinked. "OK, that's fair. But let's say you can't phase off the ropes. It's Fenton fishing line or something."

"Well, then I don't pull the switch at all—"

"That's still a pretty quick answer."

"—because if you can't phase the people out of the way, obviously you just turn the train intangible."

Phantom said it like it was so simple. Danny definitely hadn't come up with those answers when Jazz had asked him, but he kind of wished he had, now.

"I'll give you that one. I guess here's the real question... Let's say there's no more trolleys, or tied up people, but you're in some kind of situation where you can't escape from a fight. And it's not family, or Vlad, or whoever, just a total stranger; but you can flee and save yourself, and that person will die, or you can sacrifice yourself and save their life. What do you do then?"

"And I'll die?"

"Maybe."

"...and is that something you've had to answer?"

"...yeah." The fight against Pariah Dark was still far too fresh in his mind. He might have had trouble with this question himself, before he found out what his answer was.

Phantom was uncharacteristically silent. Eventually, the spectral teen just leaned back, head on the footboard, hands crossed over his chest. Time ticked on from seconds to a few minutes before he spoke again.

"I guess I'd have to do the same as you, in that situation."

That was a surprising response. Surely Vlad had created his clone to preserve himself rather than save anybody other than Vlad...? Phantom must have been an expensive investment, after all.

"Really? Why's that?"

"Well..." The clone turned to face him and gave a small, awkward shrug, with his shoulders still pressing up against the board. "It's the right thing to do, isn't it?"

That seemed like a good sign, or so Danny thought.

Although he had some more questions now.

* * *

Sam and Tucker found Danny on Monday morning in his usual spot, fast asleep in his desk. He was dead to the world until Sam gave him a hard shake by the shoulder. "Come on Danny, tell me you weren't in Wisconsin all weekend again? This isn't healthy."

"Huh?" It took a moment for a sleepy Danny Fenton to process the question. "Oh, well... I _was_ in Wisconsin..."

Tucker groaned. "Come on dude, you can't seriously waste your time stalking Vlad and his weird clone-son. When are you going to relax?"

Danny thought back over the weekend at Vlad's castle. He and the clone had talked until Danny actually passed out from exhaustion but picked up again in the morning, and on until at least noon. By the end? He was left with a decidedly positive impression. Particularly after the two tore away for an hour (slowly, for the sake of Danny's tender ankle) to stop a ghost that had escaped into downtown Madison. If he had any reservations about Phantom's motivations after that, the rest of his extended visit put them to rest.

"Actually you guys, I think Wisconsin is in good hands." Danny smiled and took a small sip of his morning take-out coffee. "I think we can put that one to bed, after all."

* * *

Author's Note:

 _Apologies for the lateness, it was a bit of a week. In the end, I had to resort to my tried-and-true method of cloistering myself away in a room with a large pot of tea and a long Spotify playlist, willing myself to finish the chapter before one or the other was exhausted._

 _Even timelines aside, this was a weird one to write. The prompt I came up with at the start of the month was "full ghost clone and original Danny don't get along", and no sooner was the metaphorical ink dry than I was second-guessing that premise. Should I add a twist? Maybe the scenario "original" Danny feared occurred and they are both clones, the original Danny having been killed? But after "_ alternate _"_ _, I didn't want to be predictable for writing simple twist endings, in no small part because I had recently watched_ The Village _and... Well, enough said, I suppose._

 _So instead of writing some kind of double-twist, triple-fakeout-metatwist, or nonplanar-hyperplot-Brownian-fractaltwist ending, I thought it might not kill me to just write something straightforward. Just this once._

 _Anyway! With this penultimate chapter out of the way, we are now sitting at a mere one chapter remaining! I will see you **tomorrow** , since at some point it became the 30th, with "_continuous _"_ _!_


	5. Chapter 5: continuous

**continuous  
** _adj._ **1** without break, cessation, or interruption; without intervening time. **2** a function for which sufficiently small changes in the input result in similarly small changes in the output.

* * *

Danny Fenton was born at age 203.

He lived only 56 years, but they were good years. Although his life was short, a car crash and a pair of broken legs told him it was time to move on; he already had a deficiency in his bone density thanks to a genetic error, and he might have had to walk with a cane for the rest of his life.

Surrounded by Sam, who a train derailment had left a teenager in her 26th decade, his parents, and his great-great-grandson (the only other relative who could make time for such a mundane occasion as a funeral), Danny Fenton died.

Danny Fenton was born at age 259.

Or at least that was the plan.

* * *

"...honestly, no idea why he switched his cloning policy to Continuous Labs this past life when we've _literally_ had centuries of good luck with the Digital Phoenix corporation. But you know Danny." A woman's voice. On the surface unfamiliar and annoyed about something, but familiar and friendly just below that.

"So he's really stayed out for the last 3 days now?" A man's voice, now. A bit incredulous. Mostly tired— No, not tired. Weary.

"And he still hasn't woken up yet, yeah. The doctor said something about irregular brainwaves or something, but they think it will pass within a day or so. I guess we'll see."

"Mhmm."

The two strange voices broke into a pregnant silence. For his part, he had no idea where in the hell he was, or why everything was dark. From context alone, it was likely the voices were talking about him, although nothing they were saying really sounded familiar.

Come to think of it, nothing was familiar. The feel of the bed beneath him, the clothes (gown?) he wore, the dull irritation deep within the skin on the back of his left hand, or the slight pinch on his right index finger. It was all so different.

Not that he had any reference to compare it to. Somehow this was all new, novel even, while still managing to feel different from... Nothing. Something. Anything, he guessed. Just... _Alien_.

He opened his eyes, and quite suddenly it became clear why things had been so dark a moment before. It was odd to have forgotten about eyelids. Though even once they were "open", they continued to shut intermittently. He wasn't really thinking about it, so much as letting it happen. Everything he was doing at the moment was much the same; his heart beat, his lungs breathed, all without much effort or input on his behalf. Somehow that seemed unusual.

"Oh hey, you're awake!"

He turned to face the source of the words. It was the woman (girl?) he had been hearing just a moment before. Short. Perhaps 15 or 16 years of age, at most. Black hair. Shining white teeth. Vivid purple eyes. Eyes that met his with a look of recognition he couldn't return in kind.

"Uh, yeah." He coughed slightly. Talking came instinctually, but the vibrating felt odd in his throat. It felt like he had never properly done it before. Like he knew the moves without having practiced them. "I guess. Hello?"

She smiled broadly at him now. "Hello yourself, mister. Tucker managed to make it down for your wake-up call." She pointed to a tall, svelte man sitting in the chair next to his bed. He was on the higher end of middle-age with a slim-cut sports jacket to match, but from behind wire-framed glasses, his eyes sparkled with youth.

"Heya Danny, sorry I missed your funeral. How's #5 feeling so far?"

"...#5?"

"Or is this 6? I swear my memory is getting worse by the day"

"No, it's not the number, but the... You know, the fifth _what_ exactly?"

He got a confused look from the older man. "Do you not remember the car crash?"

"I don't remember anything. Who even are you people? While we're at it, where _am_ I?"

The look turned to dread, and the man turned to Sam who seemed to still be working through "confusion".

"Go get a doctor. Something's wrong. For Pete's sake, _quickly!_ " he added when she didn't move.

Danny's (for that was his name, he realized) eyes followed her out of the room, before flicking back to his other visitor. "You didn't really answer my question."

He got a gentle, somewhat condescending pat on the shoulder. "Don't worry too much man, we'll get this figured out."

A few seconds later, a woman in a white coat burst through the door, Sam in tow. She was on Danny in an instant, shining a penlight in both his eyes as if all the answers were written on the back of his pupils. Eventually, Danny had to look away from the blinding light, still uncomfortable enough with the room's ambient lighting. "Do you mind not shining that at me until you explain what the heck is going on here?"

With a frown, the doctor clicked the light off and slipped it back into her breast pocket. "Do you not know what is going on here?"

" _Of course I don't._ That's why I asked!"

"Sir, can you please tell me your name, and what you think today's date is?"

"Uh... Danny, I guess, and... I don't know, I just woke up. I haven't seen a calendar yet."

The frown deepened. "Oh dear."

"'Oh dear'? Not something we really wanted to hear, doc!" Sam sounded somewhere between panicked and pissed. "What the hell caused this?!"

"It seems like the implanted memories haven't taken yet. I've heard of it happening if there's a sodium/potassium imbalance at the chip's injection site, or if the surgeon misjudges the depth of injection... I just never thought I'd see a case of it happening myself."

"Please skip to the part where this gets solved."

"Or the part where somebody tells me what you're even talking about." Danny finally got a word in edgewise.

The doctor pulled the penlight from her pocket again, but rather than actually using it busied a hand spinning it between fingers. "This must seem very confusing to you, Mr. Fenton, but four days ago you died."

"Um. No, I can't have. I'm right here, and I'm still alive"

"Yes, of course, but that's the problem. You don't remember it."

" _Remember what?_ "

"Please, just remain calm." That was easy for her to say, Danny thought, on the edge of either hyperventilating or storming out of the room; he wasn't sure which. "Before your death, a perfect clone was prepared, with your memories to be implanted in it to provide continuity of existence. It's a standard procedure, everyone does it, and it's usually performed without error—"

" _Yeah_ , you can say that again." Sam finally chimed back in. Her jaw had been set in fury for the last minute, and even now a fire still blazed in her eyes. "I need to track down Danny's lawyer. I'll be back."

As she stormed out, the older man Danny had heard called 'Tucker' shifted uneasily. "I should probably go make sure she doesn't do anything... Uh... Rash." With a strangled smile, he looked back at Danny on his way out the door. "It's been... Good to see you again, Danny."

"You too, I guess?" He was still confused. Was he supposed to be someone else? As far as he knew, he'd only ever been him, and he hadn't even been that much for very long.

After a moment, the woman whose ID badge identified her as a "Dr. Angela" spoke up again. "I'm afraid there's really not much I can do for you today, Mr. Fenton. I'd like to keep you here overnight for monitoring, and we'll just have to hope for the best."

"...I'm not going to die, am I?"

"Oh, no, no no no. Not at all. We can try to resolve the issue with the implanted memories, though I'd rather not operate on somebody who has only just regained consciousness. Or perhaps it might fix itself. Either way, rest assured, we'll solve this inconvenience for you."

He shifted uneasily. "...that's, fine, I guess. But... Could you just... Not do that at all? I think I'd rather just be me, instead of... Whoever that was that died."

"Ah, I can't... Perhaps you should sleep on that, Mr. Fenton."

* * *

"I've missed you, for the past five days."

Danny was jerked out of his short nap by the voice. It had been a few hours since he had been left on his own, trying to sort out how he felt about being a dead 56-year-old. Or a 259-year-old. Neither of them felt right. Eventually, repeating thoughts gave way to a fretful rest.

But now she was back. Danny turned to face Sam Manson, the name coming unbidden to the front of his mind, sitting in the visitor's chair next to his bed. Twilight was burning the sky in the window behind her; he must have slept longer than he thought. He didn't give any reply to her statement. Apparently, she wasn't waiting for one.

"We've been through a lot together. Five days is about as long as we've been apart for... I guess about a decade now."

"...what happened a decade ago?"

There was a slight pang of loss on her face for just a moment before she replaced it with a wistful, crooked grin. "That was when you forgot about our anniversary and booked a trip to see the Voyageur probes. I didn't speak to you for a couple of days before you left and stayed back on Earth instead of going up with you." She laughed and shook her head a bit. "It seems so silly now... Especially when I woke up a week later because somebody was playing 'Johnny B. Goode' outside our house in the middle of the night. So I raced to the window and you were standing there in the grass, holding a speaker over your head like a massive dork. And then I find out that in the middle of the tour, you went intangible and flew out of the shuttle to 'borrow' the Golden Record from Voyageur 2. Because you have a weird, nerdy idea of romance."

He wasn't sure what to say to any of that.

She correctly read his look of confusion. "Did you remember you have ghost powers or was that forgotten in the transition...?"

"Well, no..." He just wouldn't question that statement. This level of confusion required triage. "But I guess I just thought I should remember some of that. Are we...?"

"Married." She held up her left hand and pointed out the ring. "47 continuous years, this most recent time, although something like 173 total. A few divorces were probably good for our relationship overall."

Danny nodded, still very unsure of what an appropriate response might be.

The two were silent for a while. He finally spoke, sometime after the sun had dipped below the horizon outside. "I'm sorry that he didn't come back."

Sam regarded him seriously. "You— He, still might, you know."

"...is it selfish to hope that he doesn't?"

"Actually, yes." Well, she was blunt, he had to give her that much. "He wanted to get on with his life, that's all."

"What about my life?"

"How do you mean?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Danny shifted in the hospital bed a bit to sit up a bit straighter. "I'm here. I'm alive. Maybe I want to do something of my own, something new, things I would never do if I found out that some past version of me had already done them. Is that so wrong? Maybe _I_ want to fall in love. Did you or him ever consider that?"

Laughter, however gentle, was not the reaction he had hoped for. "No. I guess we didn't. This... Hasn't really happened before, not to us anyway."

"Hasn't happened, or just happened so quickly you never noticed?"

Genuine shock and hurt was also not the reaction he had hoped for.

He sighed. "Look, I'm sorry. Just because I'm in kind of a shitty situation doesn't mean I should be taking it out on you. Especially since you love... Some version of me. I just really don't want to basically _die_ so somebody else can pick up where they left off."

"No, you have a point. Maybe it is selfish of the two of us to carry on so long. It's just that when you love somebody so much, when you've done so much and still have so much left to do... Goodbyes are hard, is all."

A few moments passed with only the hum of overhead lights to keep their thoughts company.

"It doesn't have to be goodbye, you know." Sam looked at him, questioningly. "I can see that you and he... We, had something. Even if I'm not quite the guy you remember... Want to try again?"

"I... Weren't you just talking about wanting to do your own thing?"

Danny shrugged. "If I don't remember it, it's still new to me. So why not see if I fall in love with you?"

"How romantic." The sarcasm matched her smile perfectly. He found his mind lingering on both. "'Hey, wanna see if you can fall in love with somebody who looks kinda like your dead husband?' What girl could refuse?"

He laughed. "Well, for whatever it's worth, I think I like you already. So... What do you say?"

"...I'd say we can figure this out as we go."

"In that case... Let's go home."

* * *

The sun rose on a new day.

Sam was busy in the kitchen. It was her Sunday morning ritual; wake up, stretch, and get out of bed. Jog down to the farmer's market and race the quadcopter delivery drone back. Set some green tea steeping in a French press, and prepare breakfast. Today, it was jellied soy topped with the papaya chutney Danny had made the weekend prior.

... _Had_ Danny made it? Danny was a different man now. Well, a different _person_ now. It was unclear if he could still be considered a "man" in a 16-year-old body, even if his birth certificate like hers was still dated over two hundred years ago. From just a day's exposure, she thought he seemed to think and act like the same old Danny, even if he didn't remember their years and years of shared history. It almost made their cohabitation seem... Immoral, somehow. Sam hadn't quite been able to stop thinking about it in the sleepless moments of the night prior. They may have both been physically the same age, but she certainly felt her chronological age; Danny most likely did not.

The steam rolled lazily out of the spout of the French press. No matter how long she stared at it, the twisting vapor didn't seem to have the easy answers she wanted any more than her bedroom ceiling had.

Maybe Danny had been right. Maybe she should try to just relax and see if they fell in love again. She was perfectly willing to take that second chance.

"Morning, Sam." She turned to see Danny smiling sweetly from the archway into the kitchen.

"Good morning yourself, mister. How are you feeling?" She returned the smile and handed him a plate.

"Fine, thanks. I slept great. Did Continuous Labs drop me off right at home, or did I just sleep through the day at the hospital?" She looked confused. He looked at the contents of the plate. "Hey, is this that papaya chutney I made...? Looks great!"

He smiled a toothy smile at her that she couldn't quite return.

* * *

Author's Note:

 _So ends_ Analog _, on probably the most "out there" story in the entire collection. I cannot comment on it aside from "The mind of Workparty is a very strange place, particularly when feverish and sleep-deprived."_

 _I hope you have enjoyed reading this series as much as I enjoyed writing it. I owe a debt of gratitude to regular readers imekitty_ _and_ _MsFrizzle_ _who, as always, keep me on my toes and put up with my weirdness. And of course, thanks to everyone else who has reviewed, followed, favorited, or even just read this crazy anthology. I neither would not nor could not have done it without you._

Amity Park After Dark, _my other story in progress,_ _resumes in November. There is also another anthology series in the cards since I had quite a lot of fun doing this, so be on the look-out for that in the near future. Failing all that... Well, there is a new chapter of_ Danny Phantom Reversal _by The Smiling Crow out today, which is always exciting. I can also recommend_ Disparaged _by imekitty and_ Phantom Origins _by_ _Unlucky Alis, two other stories that have been mandatory reading for me for a few months now._

 _In any case. See you next time, and have a happy Halloween!_


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